This year, Cathy Burn’s State of the Industry Speech shed necessary light on challenges that fresh floral brands face, namely that the average shopper household makes only 2.5 floral purchases a year. As produce marketers, we think in terms of multiple purchases per shopping trip, or at the very least, striving to be included in most if not all trips to the grocery store. Because of that, the stark contrast of 2.5 purchases per year (!) has us thinking about the mountain each fresh floral marketer faces—and what next-level floral marketing might look like.
Fresh Marketing Potential in the Floral Space
Not surprisingly, we see some similarities between fresh produce and floral as we think back 20 years to the emergence of pioneering produce brands. These early adopters had the hard task of positioning themselves as unique amongst a sea of commodities, which included convincing a buying audience that was still years away from gaining any level of appreciation for value differentiators. Two decades into this brand-building process, it can feel even now as though we’re still taking two steps forward and one step back—so, floral friends: we get it! Thriving as a unique brand in a commoditized world is no picnic, and we hold all the respect in the world for our fellow marketing warriors who keep fighting the good fight to tell stories that matter and make meaningful connections with shoppers.
But even beyond these foundational marketing challenges, as we walked the Fresh Summit show floor, we saw so many other positive similarities between produce and floral, from the way they both ignite the senses, serve as a means of personal expression, evoke emotions, exemplify natural beauty, offer up a blank canvas for boundless creativity, and the ability to resonate with all generations and cultures. Fresh produce and floral each have limitless potential to provide joy and positive energy to shoppers—not something that just any product can boast!
Cathy’s speech—along with our own experiences with floral at Fresh Summit 2019—has piqued our interest and sparked a host of ideas about the potential for floral, so for the next several months, we’re going to take a deeper dive into the floral industry. If you’re interested in following along with the trends, statistics, and brand heroes we uncover along the way, subscribe below and be the first to have new content delivered directly to your inbox.
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